Fire Trap : A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 2)

by A. L. Knorr

  I thought about this and made a guess, piecing assumptions together. “So, Ryan heard about Nero from his dad and went looking for information about him. When he found the report, he found the formula. From there, he must have gotten in touch with Nero?”

  Basil shrugged. “We shall interrogate him as soon as he’s well. There is nothing more that can be done tonight. I don’t know about you but I feel like I’ve been dragged over rocks by a team of horses, and what I did was the easy part.”

  “But this changes everything.” I slid forward on the sofa as Basil made to get up. “Don’t you see that?”

  Basil was quiet but eventually nodded. “I do. If you’re correct, then the formula was not some wild concoction. And if that’s the case, then Nero’s story about finding that page in the wall could also be true.”

  “Possibly, meaning that any mage can survive a Burning, as long as they can withstand the pain.”

  Basil’s brow creased. “It still could have been chance. It wouldn’t do to be deceived by Ryan’s success only to learn it was a fluke and lose a mage in the discovery of it. This must be kept quiet, Saxony. Keep it with your life.”

  I gave Basil a sad look as I got to my feet along with him. He clung to his hope in vain. “It wasn’t a fluke. He’d set an alarm. As for the formula, Gage knows. Christy knows. Tomio knows something and he’s not just going to forget about it. Already the circle of those who know is too big.”

  “The good doctor is a vault. And we don’t know what Gage knows. Ryan wouldn’t have shared his discoveries or his plans with his brother. Gage would have interfered. My guess is that Gage knows his brother attempted a Burning and lured you to his side because—as a Burned—Ryan believed you were the only one who would be able to save him. Nothing more.”

  “That was another thing Ryan was right about. How could he have known that?”

  Basil looked uncomfortable. “Another thing he might have learned from his father over the years.”

  My jaw drifted open. “But Chad isn’t one of us.”

  “No, but he likes to speculate. He asked me many times—as the only Burned mage he had access to—to help him attempt it. Of course I never would. I couldn’t be responsible for his death.”

  “Did you believe his theory?”

  Basil shrugged. “It had some plausibility, but not enough to test it.”

  “And it was never attempted at the Agency?” I found it hard to believe that the Arcturus Agency wouldn’t have already tested such a theory. Wasn’t that what agencies like it were for?

  “The Agency is not in the business of risking mages’ lives, at least, not any agency I’m involved with. The mandate has always been to preserve life, not destroy it.”

  I understood the dilemma, still, Burned magi were far more effective and powerful than Unburned. Surely the temptation to test anything that might work would be too powerful to deny. Was there another reason besides not risking mage lives that would keep Basil from testing the theory? He’d lost a daughter to the fire, seven year old Dara. Personal loss changed a person. There was also the potential for personality change, which led me to the next concern.

  “Ryan showed me a photo of a relic. He tried to bribe me with it. Said he would give it to me if I took him through a Burning.”

  Basil sank back onto the sofa, his eyes growing round through his glasses. He gestured for me to continue.

  I sat beside him and took a sip of water. Putting the cup back, I cleared my throat and continued. “I refused it, but he almost had me. It looked similar to those drawings you have in the greenhouse. Not identical, but close. Gage confirmed it was real. It’s been among Radar Antiques’ holdings for several years. Ryan lifted it from his parents.”

  “Where is it now?”

  “We don’t know. Gage thinks one of his mates in Canada has it. Knowing Ryan, he won’t give it to me now. Not after I refused him and he trapped me into saving his life.” Examining Basil’s expression unfolded another unpleasant thought. He’d been wrong about the formula. He’d also told me that the power the relic was supposed to have was just a myth. What if he was wrong about that too? Ryan’s Unburned personality was bad enough, now there was a possibility he would degenerate further and he had in his possession some artifact that rumored to amplify a mage’s powers? The possibility made me shudder. It was the makings of a monster.

  Basil was quiet for so long that I reached out and touched his forearm.

  “What are you thinking?” I wondered if he’d come to the same conclusions I had.

  “I’m thinking this is a fine kettle of fish we find ourselves in.”

  “What do we do about it?”

  “We ask Ryan to turn it in.”

  I almost laughed. “Why would he do that?”

  “Because the relic is dangerous. According to myth—and no one knows how much is based on true history—the relics have power-”

  “Wait, relics? There’s more than one?”

  He nodded and rubbed a hand over his eyes, looking wearier as the moments went by. “There are supposed to be seven, so says the legend.”

  This was getting worse by the second. “Maybe that’s why the one Ryan showed me was slightly different from the one you drew.”

  Basil agreed. “Even though the relics have power that can only be wielded by a Burned mage, someone who is unworthy might be killed if they try to use it.”

  “What makes a mage worthy or unworthy?”

  “If I knew that, we wouldn’t be in this mess. The main problem is that the myths are like any old Greek or Norse or Polynesian tale. They were handed down by word of mouth until someone immortalized them in stone or on parchment. By the time they’re recorded, no one knows the original story anymore and a good amount of the tale is embellished. No one today believes that there was ever a Zeus or an Athena, so why would modern mages take the old legends seriously?”

  “You did once,” I replied softly. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have spent so much time on them in your youth.”

  He nodded. “Yes. Once. I let them occupy my thoughts and dreams, but when I matured I let them go along with all the other foolishness of youth. This is the process of growing up.”

  “But now a relic has materialized.” I hesitated to say it, what with Basil looking so grim and harrowed, but stark reality couldn’t be ignored. “Perhaps it’s time you brought your old research out of mothballs, Professor Chaplin. We have a situation on our hands.”

  Basil’s eyes, dark in the dim light, fixed on mine. They seemed to deepen and grow increasingly mournful. “I’m afraid you are right, Ms. Cagney.”

  Twenty-Five

  What Fate Awaits

  I woke to the sound of mourning doves cooing outside my window. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and blinked at the soft light of sunrise coming through the crack in my drapes. It was too early to get up, I’d just forgotten to close my curtains tightly enough last night—well, early this morning.

  Last night.

  Memories rushed into my mind as on the wings of a vivid nightmare. I imagined I could still smell Ryan’s sizzling flesh, see the smoke curling from his mouth. For a moment a terror gripped me that he’d not survived the night, that, in spite of all my efforts, the process had killed him.

  Throwing my covers off, I slid my feet into my sneakers, wincing as they were still tender. I’d cauterized all of the little cuts and slices and scratches on my body after my shower, but healing bruises took a bit more time.

  Not bothering to dress, I pulled my housecoat over my pajama shorts and t-shirt, tying a knot in the belt as I slipped out into the quiet hallway.

  Dread of a different kind laid hold of me as I slid through the corridors: Ryan had vanished before he could answer for his crimes. I’d open his door to find his bed empty, his closets and dressers bare.

  Padding up to his door, I put a trembling hand on the knob. Turning it with caution, I let the door swing inward and slipped inside, eyes adjusting to the darkness.

&n
bsp; I sighed in relief. Ryan was a lump under a single sheet. He hadn’t even moved. His chest rose and fell steadily. My fears fell away, leaving me feeling stupid and groggy. I reversed direction and had my hand on the doorknob when a sound I hardly recognized as Ryan husked from inside.

  “Saxony? Is that you?” His voice was a burned-out shell of its former self. If it remained as damaged as that, I would never again mistake him for Gage when he spoke.

  “Yes,” I said flatly, hovering at the door, torn between going back to bed and approaching to see if he’d visibly changed.

  “What time is it?” The rustling of movement drew me back inside. I watched him sit up and press his back against the pillow, moving like an octegenarian. “I feel like I’ve been steam-rolled.”

  “I know. It’ll pass. It’s early. You should go back to sleep.” I put a hand on the doorknob again.

  “Wait. Would you open the blinds?” He paused, the outline of his head taking a pensive tilt. “I sound like you, all husky and sexy.”

  I rolled my eyes but went to the window where I pulled on the cord. A soft lavender light brightened the room, throwing the shadows back. I went to stand by his bed.

  He looked sweet and sleep-rumpled. His expression was soft and pleasant, his hair charmingly mussed, and there were pillow-creases on his cheek. He and I gazed at one another, he with something akin to adoration. I suppressed the urge to slip my fingers around his throat and squeeze, just hard enough to make his face red and his eyes bulge... just a little.

  He held a hand out, fingers beckoning.

  I looked down at his waiting hand and back at his face, crossing my arms over my chest. “You expect we’re friends, now?”

  “You saved my life,” he replied good-naturedly, letting his hand rest on his stomach. “You’ve given me everything I wanted for as long as I could remember.”

  “You forced me.” My jaw was growing tight, my teeth wanted to clench. My voice wanted to lurch, screaming from my mouth like a wraith with its hands out like claws. But those sleeping in the rooms nearby didn’t deserve to wake up to a wailing banshee, so I hissed instead. “How could you do that to me?”

  He lost none of the benevolence as he rubbed the top of his head, gazing at me with a bovine expression that looked weird and out of place on him. “I tried to coerce you but you were incorruptible. You wouldn’t even take the relic. You forced my hand as much as I forced yours.”

  I snorted and shook my head, still feeling a strange hybrid of betrayal and amazement by what he’d done. “The water, the bottles—”

  “Yes, I knew how far you had to come to reach me. I’d made the trek more than once myself. But I didn’t know how long it would take you. I knew that by the time you found the basement, you’d have figured out the game and come with water. In the case you arrived too early, I had to provide a means to make more. Did you like my diagram?”

  “I didn’t even look at the note,” I snapped.

  His expression grew more adoring. “I’m not surprised. You’re that kind of brilliant, Saxony Cagney.”

  My mouth opened and closed, idiotically. I hardly knew what to do or say, faced with this complimentary new version of Gage’s twin.

  He went on in that husky, burned-out voice. “Now, I’ll be like you.” His eyes glimmered with some of the ambition that made him recognizably Ryan. “Better than you, even, given a bit of time.”

  Perhaps not as much time as he supposed, I thought bitterly. He was healing faster than I had, by the looks of him. He’d been a mage all his life, while I had been human. I supposed that could explain why.

  “What will you do now?”

  His expression closed up like the petals of a flower at night. “That remains to be seen.”

  “I want the relic,” I said. “You owe me. I deserve some compensation for the hell you dragged me through.”

  He blinked innocently. “I don’t owe you anything. You refused the deal. Why should I give up such a priceless item when my offer was so rudely turned down? Just because you did what I wanted in the end?” He shook his head and made that tsking sound that made me want to poke him in an eye… any eye. “You need to learn how to play these games better.”

  My lip curled. “You are a manipulative, selfish, arrogant—”

  He waved a hand. “I know, I know. Do you imagine I care?”

  I made a suppressed squeak of outrage. “Gage was terrified that you had died, and you drugged him,” my voice became a whisper of furious incredulity. “You don’t even care for your own twin?”

  He looked taken aback. “Of course, I do. I love my puppy-eyed younger brother, a lot more than you do. I’d do anything for Gage. I only put him to sleep. He was in no danger. I’d never hurt him. I just had to get him out of the way, don’t you see?”

  A hot tear of anger more than grief slipped down my cheek. I brushed it away with a harsh motion. I hated letting Ryan see how much he’d upset me, how much it bothered me, the way he’d abused me and Gage. “And you think we’ll forgive you? Just like that?”

  “Not you, no. I’m sure you’ll hold a grudge for a long time. But Gage will forgive. He always does. And what have I done that is so bad? Don’t you see how wrong it is that you keep all that power to yourself? Deep down, you know it, and my dear Godfather knows it, too.”

  “He doesn’t want magi to die!”

  “Thanks to you, I didn’t. Together we’ve broken the back of the biggest lie of our species, a lie that keeps our kind from excelling. I’ll never know why you were so difficult to compel except that it must be deeply embedded in your character.”

  “What?”

  “To love being the golden child, unique in all your glory.” His tone hardened. Now he sounded like the Ryan I knew.

  My lip curled instinctively. “And now that you’re Burned will you magnanimously go about sharing your supposed good fortune, Burning mages left, right and center? Leaving a wake of super-powered magi wherever you go?” Tremors ran up and down my arms, my body tense.

  “Of course not.” He face pinched with pain as he lay his palm against his stomach. He took a moment and opened his eyes. “You were right that the status should be protected, meted out to those who deserve it. Unburned mages are a dime a dozen. The supernatural world is overrun with them. That was what I resented in you and Basil. That you thought you were the only ones who could decide who might rise to your level, and you judged everyone beyond yourselves wanting.”

  “But you should be able to decide?”

  “I’ve always known I was meant for this.” He lay his head against the pillow, gazing at me through half-hooded eyes.

  “And what if it was a fluke?”

  He gave me a bored look.

  “Seriously,” I pressed, pushing a narrative I didn’t believe. “There is a chance that the formula was counterfeit, manufactured as a ruse. What if it was by chance that you succeeded?”

  “Nero didn’t make it up,” he said, saying the name like he was speaking of a personal acquaintance, if not friend.

  Silence thundered in my ears. My arms uncrossed and fell to my sides. I had guessed rightly. “So you did contact him?”

  His expression was confirmation enough.

  The mind staggered at the kind of information that might have passed between Nero and Ryan. Basil’s report had suggested that Nero’s formula had required a thermometer, but Ryan had set an alarm. Why? Why had Nero helped some young man he didn’t know? Had Ryan offered him the relic? The idea gave me shivers.

  “He’s dangerous, Ryan.”

  He scoffed. “You imagine he can or would hurt me now? After this,” he gestured to himself, where even as we spoke, the fire flickering beneath his ribcage was being transformed into a trained and obedient wolf with very large teeth. “I’m not afraid of Nero.”

  I opened my mouth to suggest that he should be when a shadow passed over Ryan’s face, the ghost of some other concern.

  “The only thing I feared can no longer touch m
e,” he murmured.

  I knew he didn’t mean fear of dying, he’d already shown he was more than happy to take that risk. “What was that?”

  A visible shudder took his shoulders. “What happened to April—”

  The realization of how hard what had happened to April must have hit Ryan, struck me like a pillow to the back of the head. “You figure now you’re immune to what happened to her?”

  He gave me another of those looks of apathy, the Ryan specialty that asked, why are you so tedious, so dense?

  I was stunned. “Was that what led you to concoct such an insane plan?”

  Ryan lifted a shoulder, his relaxed arrogance sliding back into place. “It was a factor. I’m grateful for the scare, it made me think outside the box.”

  Feeling spiteful and wanting to hurt Ryan like he’d hurt me, I pushed where he was tender. “We have no idea what happened to April. What makes you think Burned magi are immune to it?”

  His eyes widened a fraction. I could almost see the fear stalking back and forth behind his eyes.

  “April was weak,” he snarled. “She never wanted her fire. She banished it by the power of her extraordinary mind.”

  “You don’t know that. It wasn’t only April. It happened to other magi, too, and on the same night. There’s no record anywhere in mage history of anything like that happening. For all we know, any one of us could lose our fire. Just like that.” I snapped my fingers for effect. The desire to ruffle his feathers was too great to deny.

  Ryan winced, and I was on a roll.

  “Don’t you know that you’ve opened yourself up to a serious degeneration of your character? You risk psychopathy. The demented personality you started with as much as guarantees it. You could be looking into a future of madness and depravity. Eventually, you might no longer be able to love, not even Gage or your parents.”

  Ryan’s eyes narrowed, his mouth turned down. “I call bullshit.”